Claimed By Shadow Chapter Three

My eyes fluttered open, and I was met with complete darkness. I could hear something moving somewhere, but couldn’t see a thing. The softness under me felt like fur or some other kind of cushion, but I couldn’t be sure.
“Anyone there?” I sighed after I said it. Of course I sounded so stupid. The thing that took me was probably somewhere in this darkness waiting for me to make a move so it could hunt me or eat me or whatever. The mark on my neck stung, and I absently scratched at it. I blinked a few times, and some of the shadows seemed to shift. Bits of light from the wall filtered through and room started to come to life.
Light blue plants littering the walls and growing into the rocks shared their bioluminescent light, making the place more normal, but it was anything but normal.
I glanced around the place. It was enclosed and the smell of wet dirt filled my nose. On the far wall was a line of dried flowers. Some the same ones that were glowing and letting me actually see, and some that I didn’t recognize.
To the left was a small table with food items on it and weird bowls made out of something, but I wasn’t sure what. There were different meats in various forms of preparation beside the bowls waiting for whatever took me and brought me here.
I swung my legs off the makeshift bed and walked further towards the darkness until I realized what I was in. It wasn’t a house or anything that man made. It was a cave. The opening came into view, and I hurried towards it. The light was still dim out there, but the air seemed lighter and easier to breathe.
When I stepped out into the night, the first thing I noticed were the moons. They were unusually bright, and the light made the entire place look more frightening. The twisted trees in front of me reached into the starry sky and gnarled together in places. The grass was long, with some of those same blue flowers that gave light to the cave weaving in and out of them, seeming to find their own path through the forest.
“How the hell did I get here?” I shook my head, my mind searching for a way to get back home. I didn’t even know where I was or how I got here. The only thing I knew was a monster of some kind pulled me from my sleep and dropped me here, but why?
A howl from something deep in the forest caught my attention. I wasn’t going to wait and see what it was. I took off and running as fast as I could, still in my sleeping shirt and not pants or shoes. The sticks littering the forest dug into my foot, and I flinched, but the growling behind me kept me from letting it slow me down. That was until I missed the root growing across my path.
My foot caught under a root, and I fell forward, slamming my face into the long grass. It took me a moment to get myself together, but panic pushed me to roll over and finally face the thing that was chasing me. Hunting me.
My eyes met the monsters, his dark black eyes met mine, but it was his skin that made me gasp. Ice white with what looked like icicles dripping from his arms. He cocked his head at me. I pushed myself back as far as I could, but he moved with me, his eyes narrowing like I were taking his toy away.
Then darkness cloaked everything around me. I couldn’t see for a moment. Even the glow of the foreign forest floor was gone. I blinked a few times, and the darkness cleared, but instead of a monster covered in ice staring at me, I was looking at the underside of a black monster, tail and all.
I scurried back, and a tail bumped into me, stopping me from going any further. It was rough to the touch, and the end looked pointed, sharp. I glanced back at the monster with icy white skin. He growled and glanced towards me, but the massive creature standing partially over me roared. The sound was bone rattling and raw. I covered my ears in instinct and closed my eyes.
This is nuts. It’s got to be some weirdly realistic dream. I’m going to wake up any minute and be back in my bed.
I slowly opened my eyes. The white icy monster was nowhere to be found, but the dark creature standing over me shifted and turned to look at me. His tail curled around my leg like a warning not to try to run. But it was his purple eyes that caught my attention. He cocked his head and his eyes traveled down my body, before his huge clawed hand threw me over his shoulder like a doll.
I turned as much as I could to see what the hell was happening, but got distracted by the trees that were so close to us as he sprinted through the forest. The breeze from his running blew my hair around my face, and I fought with it so I could see where the hell we were going. Then I realized we were right back at the cave I’d tried so hard to get away from.
He walked inside and plopped me on the bed, but leaned over me for far too long. I kept my eyes on him, and he reached up towards my face. When I flinched, he stopped, his clawed hand mid air.
“What am I doing here?” I said it softly. The last thing I needed was this overly muscular, almost human, but not creature bitting my head off, literally.
He pulled his hand back and stepped back from the bed. He reached past me to a chain embedded on the wall and wrapped it around my ankle, but still didn’t say a word.
I pulled at the chain, but he’d bent it perfectly so it wouldn’t let go unless he wanted it to. There wasn’t even a clasp or anything. Just pure metal keeping me where he wanted me and for however long he wanted me there. The chain clinked when I moved but didn’t give at all from the wall.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I said, this time louder than I meant. The monster made a rumbling sound in its chest and turned away from me. “What am I doing here?”
The monster didn’t answer but made his way over to the table with the flowers and what looked like herbs on it. He threw a bunch into a bowl and walked back to me, handing me the bowl.
I shook my head. “I don’t want that. I want to go home,” I said.
He growled and set the bowl down. “No.” Finally, a word from this thing.
“Yes,” I countered. “You can understand me, so take me back now.”
“No,” he said again. “Mine.”
I sighed. “I’m not a thing. I’m a person.”
He cocked his dark head, the purple in his eyes disappearing and reappearing in a slow blink. “Mine,” he repeated.
I sighed and leaned back against the wall of the cave behind the bed. “I don’t belong here.”
“Yes,” he said. “Mine.”
“Are those the only words you know how to say?” I was being snarky, but I was chained to a bed in the middle of a weird bioluminescent forest with a monster. I think I was entitled to a bit of snark.
He grumbled and took the bowl of flowers and herbs to the table, before turning and walking back towards the entrance. He turned and looked at me, pinning me to the bed with those eyes. “Stay. Safe.” His tail swished the floor as he waited for me to say something.
I held up the chain and shrugged. “Not sure where you think I can go with this on me.”
He huffed and disappeared into the darkness of the cave, leaving me there wondering what the hell was going on.